Past Masters of Design

Past Masters

Masters of Design 2008

Founder of Moooi and his own design studio, Wonders Holdings, Dutch design star Wanders began his conquest of America with the launch of the Mondrian in Miami last December, and continues with a 2009 holiday line for Target.

As the new president of the Rhode Island School of Design, John Maeda, the former associate research director of MIT's Media Lab, brings digital artistry—and an obsession with business—to an ultra-analog world.

Holl and his New York-based firm had projects worth $1.4 billion on the boards last year, among them: a marina in Beirut; museums in Norway and Denmark; a "horizontal skyscraper" in Shenzhen, China, that will be as long as the Empire State Building is tall; and a 2.4-million-square-foot mini-city in Beijing.

Masters of Design 2007

The San Francisco design firm fuseproject, which Behar founded only nine years ago, has won more International Design Excellence Awards in the past five years than any other design shop save Ideo, the industry bigfoot—remarkable given fuseproject's staff of 28.

The design whirlwind behind everything from Richard Branson's space suits to a new global condo empire, Starck is as impassioned about oysters and organic cotton as he is about designing yachts for Russian oligarchs.

Masters of Design 2006

As CEO of Puma AG, Zeitz inverted industry priorities, deemphasizing sport in favor of more fashion-driven thinking: color, line, and style. The result: Puma is now the fourth-largest athletic apparel company in the world.

The Pentagram partner is the secret force behind some of the country's best-known graphic designs: logos for Citi, Tiffany, and the Metropolitan Opera; the Public Theater's text-heavy posters; and Jon Stewart's snarky faux textbook, America (The Book).

Architect Wilkinson is the man behind the workplaces we all wish were ours: the Googleplex in Mountain View, TBWA/Chiat/Day's headquarters in Playa Vista, and Mother's London offices, in which a 250-foot-long shared table holds pride of place.

Masters of Design 2005

As P&G's vice president for design innovation and strategy, Kotchka is A.G. Lafley's point person for making sure that design is part of every step of the product-development process, from the research to the store shelves.

In 1997, Collins founded Ogilvy & Mather's Brand Integration Group, an in-house strategic branding and design consultancy, to bridge the divide between advertising and design. The result? Everything from street art to Web sites, and a Hershey store straight out of Willy Wonka's brain.

Before founding her own firm, RW Trend LLC, in 2002, Waters served as Target's vice president of trend, design, and product development, ensuring that Target's product mix was as current and fresh as the wares in retailing's tonier precincts.